T14 Law School Making Cuts Over Budget Shortfalls

Stand-alone schools enjoy a certain independence, but they also fall alone when they run out of money.

Unlike law schools affiliated with larger institutions, stand-alone schools have nobody to fall back on. It's part of the problem that put private schools out of business in recent years, as the stumbling economy pushed down enrollments.

But that's not the problem at Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law, where administrators have raised nearly $250 million to buoy the law school budget. The underbelly problem is the university is making cuts across the board to finance an athletic facility, a medical research building, and other projects.

Cuts Across the Board

In a special report, Crain's Chicago Business detailed how Northwestern University went awry. The university has devoted hundreds of millions of dollars to initiatives like a new athletic training center and a 30-story biomedical research building.

As a result of a budget shortfall, Northwestern recently cut 80 jobs and ordered all of its campuses to reduce expenses by 5 to 10 percent. Pritzker Law School is cutting staff, lecturer positions, and some clinical programs.